Welcome!
I’m Allen, glad you’ve joined!
Welcome to KNOCKOLOGY. I am a big fan of your eBay store and your photography!
I am happy that I sold you once a Theo Altender leadholder!
- Abe (Ibrahim)
Very nice! Welcome aboard! -Ron
Welcome to the forum!
Hi, Dan! Welcome to Knockology!
Hallo @lsd300 , great to see you here!
Please allow me to put a couple of questions, since you decided to start with one of my favourite brands when it comes to leadholders:
- Fixpencil 31 (I see one in your picture): is it a twist-advance mechanical pencil for fat/greasy lead cores? I have never seen one “live”, but I truly cannot tell what is going on there.
- Fixpencil 77 (there is one in your picture, again): could it be that there exist a version of this pencil which is “bare”, i.e. made only of the aluminum of the barrel, without any coating?
Congratulations on your stubby, tiny, super-cute Fixpencil 23: the more I see pictures of those around, the more I crave one… ![]()
Here are close ups of the C D’A 31 and the closest version I know of a “paintless” CDA (although labeled not exactly “only” CDA) .. and friends
Welcome, Dan. Glad you are here.
The green one in the last photo reminds me of Tru-Point Standard model.
Kinda..too srtaight in the barrel…but the lack of clear imprint gives it that K+E version look
The colored ones look as long as the 77.. is that accurate?
The colored ones are 5 5/8", the “clear” one ie 5". The fishes (77) are 6"… all versions.
I see… Ecrifix! A semi-straightforward derivation from CdA. Interesting variation on the “bare aluminum barrel” theme.
Thank you @lsd300 for taking the time to answer. ![]()
Also, nice to see the Kern company logo on a CdA body: I spotted some Kern-branded leadholders some time ago, but they were all from KIN (mostly, 5611 and 5616 with some kind of “Kern Theodolites” imprint on the barrel), in what probably was some salesman’s presentation box.
Does anyone here know more about these ‘Rijam’ models? They seem to be identical to, or at least very similar to the Caran D’ache Fixpencils below.
That pencil design is quite old, and has been used by many companies for different lineups.
I think it all started with Caran d’Ache, or possibly a French company with many names — Conté, Conté–Gilbert, Conté–Gilbert–Blanzy, Conté–Gilbert–Blanzy–Poure, etc. — and their “Criterium” series. It was such a success, that in France sometimes the word “criterium” has just become a synonym of “lead holder”.
The French company made plastic, aluminum and other models with that specific form factor, for all sorts of lead diameters, from 0.5 to 5.6mm; there was a nice French webpage about the history of the Criterium with an almost complete timeline, but unfortunately I lost the link (a seller on Vinted shared with me during one of our conversations, but that message has become too old to be accessibile).
Hence, I am not surprised by your finding of other pencils with that specific form factor — but i like the “bare-metal” finish.
Wow, I really love these Rijams. Thank you for sharing! Never heard of them before.
Hi folks. How nice to be on a forum again! I found you and this thread yesterday as I was looking for info about the Caran d’Ache 31. I have had it for 25 years but never seen one like it, and very little information is to be found.
Cheers / Sven
Architect in Sweden
Hi there @Sven , welcome to the community!
I found out about the Fixpencil 31 only recently, via a web image showing a large number of different pencil models from CdA — it was, I think, from the personal collection of someone present here as well (maybe @2nd_astronaut ?) — but initially I paid little attention to the model.
Then I managed to get a small lot of Fixpencils from a Swiss seller, and among those there was a used 31 painted in black; when it arrived in my hands, I knew it was different from all the other models made by the company.
As you know very well, it is a twistaction mechanical pencil, and the lead is fed by twisting the plastic, rigged rearbutton, but I discovered very quickly that it is designed for a very specific lead diameter, one not commonly available, and the original lead it came with was clearly of the “fat-lead”-type, namely those greasy lead cores used mostly for marking different surfaces (a close example is the A.W. Faber “Glas-Schreiber” Nr.21/13).
Another unusual characteristic is that the lead is not pushed out by a rod as in most old twistaction pencils (and also in some more modern ones, like some Uchida Drawing Sharp’s), but instead it is gently moved forward by the rotation of the inner chamber inside the barrel where the lead is simply press-fit — this, plus some other gimmick I cannot identify because I was unable to dismantle the pencil, and I did not want to push my luck and risking an irreparable damage.
I don’t know much more about the pencil itself, save for the facts that it is slightly shorter than average, and it also strongly resembles older CdA models (Fixpencil 1 in 1.18mm, for instance) as per weight, material, and finish; also, it is widely recognised that Caran d’Ache lacks reference material such as catalogues and brochures, so it is quite hard to pin down production and distribution dates. My wild guess is that it is probably a 1950’s-ish specimen, possibly a bit earlier, but not much more later — as I think other models, less specialised and more general such as the Fixpencil 22 or 77, arrived on the market and were able to handle greasy lead as well, even though not so well.
There are here many pencil historians with a much better pedigree than me, so I hope someone will add more information.
PS: the red painting on your model is super-cool; I have a Fixpencil 1 in that finish, and it is very bold and gorgeous! ![]()
Welcome Sven









